Perhaps it was the title that should have been the giveaway for TV presenter Andrea McLean.

For when she was offered a leading role in a British gangster flick, it was called A Landscape Of Lies.

The Loose Women star was filmed in intimate clinches as she played a bisexual therapist in what its makers claimed was a movie portraying a ‘seedy world of power, lies, and betrayal’.

Scroll down to see the 'bogus film' trailer

Jailed: Former property developer Bassar Al-Issa (right) and film producer Aoife Madden (left) were part of the gang who pretended to be making a Hollywood blockbuster to claim £2.8million in VAT and film tax credits

'Entirely bogus film project': Loose Women presenter Andrea McLean (left) was one of the A-listers roped into starring in the fake thriller (pictured in a fake promotional video as a bisexual therapist)

Andrea McLean declined to comment after the hearing

But Miss McLean, 43, soon discovered
it was the film producers who were dealing in lies and betrayal. For the
four men and a woman behind the project were involved in a
sophisticated scam to cheat the taxman.

They had begun by pretending to be
making a blockbuster with the similar title, A Landscape Of Lives. They
claimed this film would star Hollywood A-listers such as Jeremy Irons,
as well as his wife Sinead Cusack and Hollyoaks star Christina Bailey,
and had a £20million budget

But it was all a sham to allow the
gang to make out the venture had lost most of the money they had
‘invested’, so they could claim £2.7million in tax rebates under a
scheme designed to boost the film industry.

Yesterday a judge said the scam exposed the ‘naievety’ of such rebate schemes.

The gang wrote fake scripts and crafted counterfeit documents to give their plan a veneer of respectability.

They raked in almost £1million in fraudulently claimed cash in the 12 months until April 2011.

But tax officials became suspicious –
and discovered the film company’s offices in fashionable Harley Street,
London, consisted of a single empty room.

Its ‘studio’ was the flat of one of the gang, where they had managed to produce just eight minutes of poor quality footage.

But while on bail after they were
arrested on suspicion of fraud, the gang hatched a plot to convince
investigators the project did exist, and made A Landscape Of Lies – with
a budget of less than £90,000. Miss McLean was unwittingly roped in to
play Dr Audrey Grey.

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Marc Bannerman, who played Gianni di Marco in EastEnders, was also approached.

The gang even created a website which
boasted: ‘This gritty British drama is a complex exploration of lives
that will draw you into their seedy world of power, lies, and betrayal.

‘The dark themes are subtly
illuminated by the characters’ poignant stories. The storyline
challenges people’s notions of what’s right and what’s wrong.’

Film tax scam: The five fraudsters convinced HMRC that Madden's production company Evolved Pictures had secured £19.6million in financial backing from a Jordanian company for gangster film A Landscape of Lies

Andrea McLean starred as bisexual therapist Dr Audrey Grey in the film A Landscape of Lies

Charged: Pakistani national Tariq Hassan was convicted of one charge of conspiracy to cheat the revenue in relation to film tax credits and jailed for four years

Ironically, A Landscape Of Lies won an
award at the 2012 Las Vegas Film Festival. But by then the scam had
collapsed completely after tax officials began exmaining the books.

Yesterday, the five fraudsters were
jailed at Southwark crown court, with Judge Juliet May saying she could
not decide whether they were ‘fantasists’ or were laughing at the
‘naivety’ of a system designed to encourage home-grown filmmakers.

The mastermind of the scam was
bankrupt former property developer Bassar Al-Issa, 33, who was jailed
for six and a half years. An Iraqi national living in Maida Vale, West
London, he dreamt up the scheme while studying finance at the University
of East London. He transferred a substantial chunk of the illicit
profits to Jordan, where he has a home and businesses. It has not been
recovered.

Aoife Madden, 31, an actress, film producer and former drama teacher, was jailed for four years and eight months.

Her home was used to shoot the few
scenes of the original movie that were filmed and she hand-delivered a
DVD to officials to try to prove it existed.

She was also a student at the
University of East London, where another conspirator, Tariq Hassan, 51,
taught Al-Issa. Hassan, of Loughton, Essex was jailed for four years.

Architect Ian Sherwood, 53, from
Manchester, was jailed for three and a half years, while Jordanian
businessman Osama Al-Baghdady, 50, from Manchester, was jailed for four
years.

The four men had denied fraud, saying
the claims for VAT repayment and Film Tax Credit were made in good
faith. They were convicted earlier this month.

Madden, of West Kensington, West London, admitted conspiracy to cheat the public revenue.

Miss McLean declined to comment after the case yesterday.

Faking a thriller: Finances lecturer Ian Sherwood (right) and Jordanian businessman Osama Al-Baghdady (left) helped set up fake companies with Al-Issa to convince authorities that the project was real